


Fractured

by Rakath



Category: Degrassi, Degrassi: Next Class
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-27
Updated: 2018-08-27
Packaged: 2019-07-03 06:52:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15813702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rakath/pseuds/Rakath
Summary: Maya and Esme take a break from school.Set during 1x09 (SinceWeAreBeingHonest)





	Fractured

Esme stormed down the hall. Who needed Miles, or anyone, he’d fall apart again and it wouldn’t be her problem. She had her own problems. Her own demons to deal with. She didn’t need this. She didn’t need anyone, what good were people.

This thought process was abruptly ended when Esme walked into a tiny, blonde, hallway hazard. Esme was about to yell at her but she wasn’t entirely sure Maya was there at first. Maya mumbled out a sorry and took a few steps back, nearly walking into the path of another student when Esme grabbed Maya and pulled her out of the lines of traffic.

Esme eyed the other girl a few moments, this was not her problem. She didn’t need this, she didn’t care about Maya. But, something tugged at the back of Esme’s mind. Maya was alone, Maya was never really alone. She had friends, and family, and people to mind her even while she was being tortured by whoever it was online. But this Maya, this lonely Maya, felt like someone Esme wanted to help.

Just this once.

“Come on, we’re getting you out of here.” Maya in this state wouldn’t get much out of school anyway, and eating burgers in the middle of the day was better with someone. Maya offered pretty much no resistance to her plan, Esme had very little trouble dragging the girl by the hand down the hall and out of the school.

Dragging Maya by the hand would get old fast so Esme got them both to her car. The drive didn’t seem to do much, and every time Maya’s phone buzzed, she jumped, in her seat, like a scared animal. Esme solved that by shoving Maya’s phone in the glovebox and turning on the radio. Esme’s choice was a station she could dance to, club music that was loud but with enough freedom she could get creative.

Maya made a face at it, she seemed a bit more aware, she fiddled with the dials until the car filled with Classical. Not Esme’ favorite but she was amused that pop rock princess Maya Matlin was about the Dead European composers. Maya pressed her face into the window and seemed calm enough, but also a bit more lucid than she was. Esme let the music play and just watched her, studying someone she honestly thought was normal.

Foolish to assume that. Esme knew first hand that everyone thought she was normal at first glance too.

Esme drove as long as she felt like, which was far enough that someone would have to really look for them, to a bistro she enjoyed far from her father’s usual daily routines. Nicer looking than a diner but overall the same basic ‘all american’ food of meat and bread. Maya seemed like a real, honest to goodness, girl again. Maybe not happy but Esme didn’t need to drag her around in a stupor.

They ordered, Esme dismissed Maya’s concerns about the price, “Just get whatever, it’s on me.”

“Thanks, but… why?” Oh look, there was a brain in there now.

“You needed to get out of there, I didn’t want to be there anymore, really, that’s it.” Esme turned her attention fully to Maya. Now that she was up close and a real girl, not just a lifeless dolly, she was a little more dangerous. Esme had assumed Maya, perky, upbeat, wants to be a rock star, was an idiot. Esme could pretty much tell that Maya’s attentions were just as sharp as her own. “So what happened, you were basically dead when you ran into me.”

“Oh, um, there these jerks online.” That’s a familiar tale, “Sending me death threats and talking about breaking into my house to rape me.” Okay, less familiar. That’s a lot of trouble to hound some girl who wrote a catchy feminism anthem. Maya had slowed down, gotten quiet again. Not despondent like before, just aware of how big this weight on her was. “I’m used to some of it.”

That, well, was absolutely not what Esme was expecting. Maya was as wholesome as they came. Even with a little leeway she might have some BDSM Sex Dungeon the idea she’s gotten used to a level of constant online aggression was just… weird. “Come again?”

“I made a music video when I was fourteen, and it was a little… sexy, some guy felt me up at school. And I got a lot of messages and…”

Esme song bent her spoon, she’d been fiddling with it out of boredom but that caused a bit of her inner… issues, to fester out. She quickly bent it back. Maya, unfortunately, noticed. Maya’s eyes went a little wide. It took Esme a moment, “Right, didn’t take these off.”

Esme pulled the bandages off her wrist and stuffed them in her pocket. She looked at Maya, there was a long pause before finally Esme broke the stalemate.

“I’ll make you a deal, you tell yours, I’ll tell mine. Promise.”

Maya watched her a few more moments. “Anyway, after that there was this thing with my boyfriend. Before we dated, he was living with me.”

Esme couldn’t help but smirk, because if she had a boy in her house. “Sorry, not like that, continue.”

“He was trying to get out of a gang and they kinda wrecked my house. Then I sorta got kidnapped once…”

“Okay, stop, how much of this is bullshit?” Esme leaned forward to look at Maya. Maya’s lacking a lot of bigger cues, as to what she’s feeling but there weren’t any signs. “Wait you’re serious?”

Maya just looked down, “I kinda keep getting myself into stuff.”

“No shit.” Esme leaned back. Why the hell did she waste time on Miles? Sure he could party, and he was great in bed, but he was so mopey and sad all the time. Maya seemed to have the luck of an action film protagonist.

“So… the messages this time have been a lot more personal, like they… know me. I haven’t been sleeping, and today Zig got suspended for punching someone out. And I just-” Maya didn’t seem to have much energy left, just digging the events up seemed to push her back into that stupor she was in. So Esme took her hand and just… held it. It felt weird, Esme wasn’t the romancy bistro type.

But here she was with a distressed damsel, in a bistro, and this had to look hella romantic.

“I just wanted attention, Miles had been shutting me out. And I thought he had to look at me if he thought I was really crazy.” Esme was quiet, “I just- I didn’t want to be alone, I needed him. I needed him to still see me, want me around. I didn’t want him just leaving me behind so.”

“So you pretended you tried to kill yourself?”

Esme couldn’t clock Maya’s affect. It was… wrong. Most people are horrified, they’re disgusted, they write Esme off as a lunatic. That wasn’t there, it was tired, and quiet, but… familiar? Like she knew something related to this. “Yeah. I just- I needed him to see me.”

“If he didn’t you might as well not exist?”

Esme looked at her, then down to their hands. Somewhere in there Esme stopped holding Maya’s hand. Maya was holding Esme’s hand now. It was weird, they didn’t move, but the whole dynamic just turned on its edge. “That’s how it felt.”

“...Thank you, for getting us both away from there.”

Esme smiled a little, it wasn’t much but it was something. A weird something. Girls were a lot of work, Esme never bothered with them. Way too much trouble. But. They were already here, “Thank you for being a great reason to get us out of there.”

“I’ll do it again if you need me to.”

Esme smiled fully at that, that was the best offer she’d ever gotten.

**Author's Note:**

> So this WAS a request of 'Esme bumps into Maya and Maya sees the bandages' but it kinda... got away from me, turned into something else. I liked what it turned into... I'll do the proper request later.
> 
> See, the problem with the request is Maya in 1x09 is basically not fully functioning. She's honestly on the edge of catatonic through more than a few scenes. The idea of Maya having a lot of fight in her kinda pushed forward and I ended up writing Esme looking after Maya instead?
> 
> Which is weird but I'm into it.


End file.
